Mouse Ears and Churros
by coveredinbees14
Summary: Written for Circulation 3 of the Newsies Pape Selling Competition based on the idea of Newsies going to Walt Disney World.
1. Introduction

Author's Note: This was written for the Newsies Pape Selling Competition on the forums under Plays so come join the fun! Anyway, my Newsies are off to Disney World. I used the prompt pencil and fried food. I'll be sure to add the word count when I am finished but for now it's 587 for the Intro and 604 for Chapter 1. I rarely write for many of these characters so please excuse any missteps or ideas that don't mesh with your headcanon. Cheers!

* * *

David tapped the pencil against his glass of water and sent a pleading look across the table to where Jack sat in conversation with Mush.

The tapping increased. "Guys, c'mon! This is important!"

Recognizing the desperation in David's voice Jack held his hand up and waited until the various conversations ended. He smiled at David and gestured for him to start talking.

David ran a hand through his hair and frowned down at the notepad in front of him. "OK, um, I need to let you guys know what group you're in charge of and the schedule and stuff-"

"A schedule? Way to suck the fun out of everything, Davey."

"I don't care as long as I don't get stuck with the toddler brigade."

"Shut up, I'm trying to listen!"

"You shut up!"

"Happiest place on Earth, my ass."

David glanced back at the kids table to ensure they weren't listening before gritting his teeth and facing the group of teenagers in front of him. "Look, I'm the one handing out credit for this so knock it off or I'm not signing anyone's form. So, like I told the kids, I arranged each group by color and age. I'm not changing it, so no complaints. Each group will start in one area of the park and then we'll meet for dinner at…" David paused and swallowed hard before continuing, "…the Be Our Guest restaurant."

"Oh my god! I love Beauty and the Beast!"

"You would."

"Be our guest, be our guest, put our service…"

"Oh jeezus, don't start him singing."

"Whichever group Mush is in, I don't want any part of."

"I told you, I'm not taking toddlers. Or anyone who sings Disney medleys in the shower."

"You know the word 'medley'! Ha!"

"Guys!" David interrupted. "Can we just get through this?"

Jack reached across the table and grabbed the notepad out of David's hand. He perused the list of names and arched his eyebrow as he saw the assignments.

"All right, fellas," Jack started. "Blink and Mush are taking the green group in Frontierland, Skittery and Specs got the blue group starting in Adventureland. Me and Davey are with the orange group starting in Tomorrowland. So that leaves…"

Jack stopped and glanced from the paper to David's face and back again. David just shook his head.

"Ahem," Jack cleared his throat and was clearly trying not to grin. "That leaves Race and Spot with the yellow group in Fantasyland."

"What? What the fu-"

"Spot!"

"-did he just say? _Fantasyland_?"

"You heard the man." Specs leaned over and did his best Genie impression. "No substitutions, exchanges, or refunds."

"Pipe down," Jack told him. "It makes sense to have the smallest guys with the smallest kids."

"First, I'm gonna kill Mouth. You're next, Kelly."

"Happiest place on Earth, remember?" Jack smiled easily as he handed the paper back to David.


	2. Blink and Mush

"Blink, do you hear a chipmunk?"

"I think the heat is getting to you."

"Listen! In that little tree trunk over there, with the clothesline."

Blink eyed his friend and then peered over the head of the kid sitting in front of him to see a brightly painted oak tree complete with mailbox and wash hanging out on the aforementioned clothesline. He shook his head and sat back in the fake 'log' as it floated past. He had to give it Disney, they didn't leave out any details.

Mush reached over and shook Blink by the shoulder. "See? I told you!"

"I thought you said this ride was out of the sun."

"It is. We just gotta get inside the mountain…"

"…it's a plastic mountain…"

"…and then Brer Fox and Brer Bear will try to catch Brer Rabbit. And we'll go to the laughing place…"

"How many times a year do you visit this place?"

"I dunno. My family brought me just about every year when I was younger. What are you so upset about?"

Blink slouched down further into the molded seat and ended up feeling another puddle of water seep into his shorts. From the moment he sat down he knew it was going to be a bad time.

"I told you, I ain't crazy about starting my day soaking wet from some ride," Blink muttered. He glanced over at the young girl sharing the seat. She had been one of the group members who voted to ride Splash Mountain first thing. "No offense."

Mush craned his neck back and saw Blink's grip on the safety rail pulled down as tight as possible. "You could have waited for us at the end of the ride. It's not like you didn't know about the hill drop."

"False advertising!" Blink argued hotly. "This is supposed to be for kids and then they tell you about this 50 foot drop and how you'll get wet and…"

"You could see it from the ride entrance!" Mush laughed but his smile faded as he saw Blink's face pale. He turned back in his seat to realize they were on the ascent to the final drop.

Blink felt his breath quicken and his grip on the safety rail grew tighter as they moved past some rather somber looking vultures and listened to Brer Rabbit plead with Brer Fox not to throw him in the briar patch. Just as they reached the top of the hill the girl reached over and held Blink's hand. He saw that she had the same wide-eyed look of fear and tried to swallow his own fear for her sake.

"Not so bad, was it?" Blink heard Mush ask. He opened his eyes to find himself at the bottom of the hill, floating merrily past some kind of steamboat full of chickens singing 'Zippity doo da'. All he could do was smile at his friend.

The kids were eagerly arguing over who screamed and who didn't and who ended up getting the most water splashed on them. Mush and Blink followed the kids through the gift shop and Blink realized that Mush had kept one little secret about the ride from him.

Mush studied the panel of screens until he found what he was looking for. Blink had not realized that there was a camera taking pictures of every single group on the final hill as the log headed into the fake briar patch.

"Photo 227 please," Mush told the woman behind the counter. He smiled over his shoulder at Blink. "I'm going to want to keep this photo for a long, long time."


	3. Skittery and Specs

"Skittery! C'mon, the kids are getting ahead of us!"

Skittery looked up from the receipt he was holding. "Twelve churros? How could you let them buy twelve churros?"

Specs shrugged. "Two each, I guess."

Skittery stared open-mouthed at his friend. Math was clearly not the issue. David had failed to explain that the MagicBands gave the kids the freedom to purchase whatever their little hearts desired. Including twelve churros.

"You realize someone has to pay for all those, right?" Skittery asked. He crumpled the receipt and stuffed it into his pocket with the half a dozen or so other receipts already there.

It was the heat. He blamed the heat and the strollers and the fact that David had stuck them with the most boring land ever. Skittery grumbled to himself as he considered the morning's adventures. There was the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse where Specs had almost walked right off a ten foot high platform due to his near-sightedness. Then the Aladdin carpet ride which was just another version of Dumbo in Skittery's opinion. At least the kids had fun with the spitting camels. It wasn't until he heard the soundtrack to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies blaring that Skittery realized Adventureland may be salvageable.

"You know this ride is haunted, right?" Skittery asked as he followed Specs onto the ride. He was in heaven. It was dark, it was air conditioned, and the kids were in awe of the scenery so they had managed to stop squabbling for ten seconds.

"Haunted?" Specs asked as he tried to clear the fog from his glasses. "Wrong ride, man."

"Seriously," Skittery argued. "When the ride opened this worker named George died and ever since then if the cast members don't say 'Hi' to George when they start the ride every morning then things go wrong. Race told me all about it."

"Dead men tell no tales," a misty hologram of Davey Jones warned them as the boat traveled through the ride. The kids held tight to each other and looked from the shipwrecked beach to the mermaids in the water below.

"Quit it," Specs laughed nervously. "You're scaring the kids."

"I wonder what happens when George gets ups—ohhhh, shit!" Skittery yelled as the boat took a nose-dive. For a second it was so dark Skittery couldn't have seen his hand in front of his face. Just as his stomach lurched the boat floated calmly past a scene where the Black Pearl was battling Port Royale.

"Aw, man, you should see your face!" Specs chuckled.

"You should see _your_ face!" Skittery laughed as he nudged Specs in the shoulder.

"Ah, but you have heard of me," Specs imitated as they passed a surprising life-like Captain Jack Sparrow. Specs could do the best impressions and Skittery had to laugh as Specs began to create whole scenes from the movie. Skittery had to admit he was enjoying himself. He even attempted to sing along with the rest of the boat as the animatronic pirates broke into a chorus of "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.'

Skittery was in such a good mood that he even picked up a plastic sword in the gift shop. He turned to one of the kids in his group. "Avast, matey! Draw your weapon, you scurvy bilgerat!"

The boy smiled broadly and picked up a sword. The two battled their way through the gift shop, past bewildered parents and children. Skittery stopped short when he saw the entrance to The Pirate's League. It offered guests the chance to have their face painted, be given their own hook, hat, and sword, and join the crew.

"What do you say, Captain?" Specs joked. "Want to become a real pirate?"

"It's better than wasting money on twelve churros," Skittery answered as he led the kids inside. Maybe Adventureland wasn't so bad after all.

* * *

Author's Note: True story about George ;-) My apologies again for Skittery and Specs - and I do realize I'm not giving the kids names or personalities...sorry about that! I just didn't want to get too overwhelmed since this is my first time writing for more than three characters. Hope I'm not messing it up too badly :-)


	4. Jack and David

"OK, so at 9:45 we have FastPasses for Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, which is across from Stitch's Great Escape, and if we have time we could go on the People Mover but I'm not sure because there's also the Tomorrowland Speedway and my guidebook says that can take quite a bit of time out of the day…"

"Davey."

"…then there's the Carousel of Progress which was originally part of the World's Fair and is the longest running stage show…"

"Dave."

"…did you know that Walt Disney himself said that it's the only ride that should never cease operations?"

"David!"

"What?" David asked, finally looking up from his binder. It was color-coded and had every single detail he felt he needed to make the trip a success. The only problem with his plan was that he was partnered with Jack and Jack was a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of guy. Which David found both irritating and endearing at the same time.

"The kids voted for Space Mountain," Jack explained easily. He gestured to the plaza outside the ride which was swarming with people.

David felt his stomach drop. He should have known. He'd been hoping to distract the kids but he'd clearly underestimated the draw of a roller coaster hurtling through the dark to a group of preteens.

"But we don't have Space Mountain scheduled until this afternoon," David argued weakly. He figured by the afternoon the line would be way too long and such a turn-off that the kids would be eager to ride anything _but_ Space Mountain.

Jack put his hand on David's shoulder and turned him away from the kids. "You ain't gotta go, Dave."

David flipped through the pages of his binder nervously. "I'm just not sure there's time. I mean, if we don't use those FastPasses they just expire and we can't get another one for hours."

David looked up at Space Mountain and tried to imagine what the appeal was. He'd read that it was something like the third tallest mountain in Florida which was amusing considering it wasn't even a real mountain. Avoiding roller coasters was why he'd sent Mush and Blink to Frontierland, home of both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. What was it with Disney World and their fake mountains trying to scare the pants off of people? He'd never liked roller coasters. The only time he'd really put his foot down to the point people finally took him seriously was when the group visited Coney Island and he'd refused to go anywhere near the Cyclone.

Les ran over and grabbed his sleeve, tugging David toward the entrance with a pleading look. David tucked his binder into his backpack and allowed himself to be steered through the gate and into the long line.

The inside of the ride wasn't exactly soothing as the hallway was dark and lined with holographic photos of space and the constellations. David had read that there were Hidden Mickeys among the stars but he was too nervous to even try to look for them. The low ceiling combined with being packed along the railing with dozens of other people was starting to make David feel claustrophobic.

"Relax, Dave. It's Disney," Jack told him.

David tried not to hyperventilate. For some reason images of roller coaster malfunctions ran non-stop in his mind. He fiddled with the strap of his MagicBand.

"Everyone has to start somewhere. At least there's no giant hill," Jack tried again to reassure him. He leaned toward David. "It's really okay if you want to wait outside. I'll tell the kids you felt sick."

As they inched closer to the loading area David tried to ignore the screams and yells from ride vehicles that had already departed. Les held tight to his hand as if he knew his brother was very close to turning right around and exiting the ride.

"Sit in the middle, Dave!" Les told him as they stood waiting in the designated line for the next 'spaceship'.

David gulped as he saw that the ride had people sit in rows, one behind the other. He had assumed he'd be able to share a seat with Les. And the tiny lap bar certainly didn't look secure as he tucked his bookbag into the small space down by his feet.

"Proud of you, Dave," Jack said as he leaned forward and clapped David on both shoulders. He kept his hands there the entire time, reassuring David that nothing was going to happen. By the end of the ride David couldn't have even said what the ride was like. All he knew was that he'd made Jack proud of him and that was all that really mattered to him.

* * *

Author's Note: OK, this is another story where I am trying to create a kind of neutral zone between the boys. However, I realize that some may feel this part of the story is veering toward slash territory. Like I've said before, I like both types of stories so I'm hoping people take it as two boys who care for each other as friends, as companions, as whatever you would like them to be :-) That way everyone is happy :-)


	5. Race and Spot

Author's Note: Sorry this is the shortest chapter. Trying to get in by the deadline.

* * *

"Youse Guys Moychindise. I mean c'mon, who talks like that?" Spot asked moodily.

"Um, you do," Race joked. He stared innocently ahead of him as Spot gave him a dirty look. Race shoved his hands in his pockets and tried not to cuss as he maneuvered around strollers and tourists who had stopped dead in the middle of the pathway to look at a map. In a way it reminded him of New York. Of course there were a few differences. For one, Disney was full of smiles and fairy dust and sticky little kids running around dressed as pirates and princesses with no one even batting an eye.

"Why does this place have so many of these?" Race asked as he struggled to keep an eye on the kids as they wandered their way through another gift shop.

"Race, gimme some money," Spot demanded as he eyed the enormous sweets counter in the center of the circus tent shaped shop.

"Use your band," Race answered in an irritated voice as one of the boys tugged him over to a huge stuffed animal collection. He was always amazed that, as skinny as Spot was, the kid could put away sweets like no tomorrow.

"Sowhaddyawannadonext?" Spot asked around the giant cookie he was holding in his mouth as he tucked a bag of cotton candy under one arm and a candy apple under the other.

"They voted for that Barnstormer ride," Race explained. He pulled Spot to one side. "Except Lila. She's scared."

"It's like the world's smallest roller coaster," Spot answered as he looked at the track. "I don't even think it counts as a real roller coaster."

"Well, it counts to her. So stay here and we'll meet up after."

"Oh hell no, you're not making me stay with some kid."

"Then take the others and get in line."

"I'm not doing that either."

"Fine, we'll flip a coin. Heads or tails?"

"Neither," Spot told him.

Race took the oldest kid by the hand and led the others toward the ride, leaving Spot and Lila staring awkwardly at one another. A small feeling of trepidation entered Race's mind as he left the two standing there but he figured it was better to leave Spot with one poor kid than to subject the whole group to Spot's sour demeanor.

"You got room for two more?" Race heard Spot ask and turned to see his friend standing with a very determined looking little girl. "Me and Lila got a little bet going."

"You sure?" Race asked. The little girl nodded and grinned up at Spot.

Race got the shock of his life twenty minutes later when Spot sauntered into the gift shop and purchased two sets of Mickey ears, placing one on Lila's head and one pair on his own head.

"What?" he asked as Race stared at him. "She won the bet."


End file.
